Cal Basketball: Four Ex-Golden Bears In Play for The NCAA Tournament

Mercifully, the Cal basketball season is over.

The Bears’ 69-52 first-round loss to Washington State at the Pac-12 tournament on Wednesday afternoon closed the most grim chapter in the program’s more than century-long history.

Cal lost their final 16 games to finish the season at 3-29.

But it’s not done yet for four former Golden Bears — one of whom already is headed to the NCAA tournament while the other three are chasing berths.

Connor Vanover, Matt Bradley, Andre Kelly and Justice Sueing have combined for the impressive totals of 6,023 points and 2,705 rebounds in their careers. And, unlike the Bears, they are still playing.

— CONNOR VANOVER Oral Roberts: The 7-foot-5 senior center, who transferred to Arkansas after one season at Cal then moved onto Oral Roberts for this season, was named to the Summit League all-tournament team after posting 10 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots in the Golden Eagles’ 92-58 rout of North Dakota State in the Tuesday night title game.

Vanover averaged 15.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocked shots while shooting 63 percent from the field in three Summit tournament wins.

For the season, Vanover is providing the Eagles 12.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.3 blocked shots per game -- which ranks No. 2 nationally -- for a 30-4 team. He was named Summit League Newcomer of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

As an automatic qualifier into the NCAAs, the Golden Eagles project as a No. 12 seed, according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi.

— MATT BRADLEY, San Diego State: Cal’s best player his final two years in Berkeley, the 6-5 guard is a two-time All-Mountain West first-team selection. Bradley is averaging a team-best 13.0 points this season and will lead the 20th-ranked Aztecs (24-6) into a MWC tournament quarterfinals matchup vs. Colorado State (15-17) at noon on Thursday.

After the Aztecs clinched the Mountain West regular-season title with a 67-50 home victory over Wyoming on Saturday, Bradley admitted he wasn’t familiar with the protocols for celebrating a championship.

“Going up there and cutting the net, I’ve never done something like that before so I didn’t know where to cut from,” said Bradley, who has scored 2,221 career points for the Bears and Aztecs, but was not part of a winning team until he arrived at SDSU. “Just having experiences like that is something I’m going to think about for the rest of my life.

“I wanted the ring,” he added. "I’ve seen my teammates having it and I was like, ‘I need one for myself.’ That’s what I did and now it’s time to win games in March.”

Rated No. 16 in the NET computer rankings, SDSU is a virtual lock to get into the NCAA field, even as an at-large entry. Lunardi currently has the Aztecs as a No. 6 seed.

— ANDRE KELLY, UC Santa Barbara: The 6-8 forward from Stockton stuck it out at Cal for four seasons, topping 1,000 career points before exiting as a graduate transfer to UCSB.

He is averaging 9.7 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds for the Gauchos (24-7), who tied UC Irvine for the Big West title and take on Cal Poly (8-24) in the conference tournament quarterfinals on Thursday at 6 p.m. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Gauchos and Anteaters meet in the Saturday championship game.

Kelly was sidelined for UCSB’s 70-59 loss to Irvine in February after being suspended one game for fighting with Ty Johnson of UC Davis in an incident that sparked a brawl between the teams. One month earlier, Kelly scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Santa Barbara’s 73-65 win at Irvine.

— JUSTICE SUEING, Ohio State: The 6-7 forward, who averaged 14.1 points per game in two seasons at Cal, is part of a Buckeyes’ squad that will need to win the Big Ten tournament to grab an NCAA bid.

He had 16 points Wednesday night in a 65-57 win over Wisconsin, but at 14-18 overall after a 5-15 record in conference play, the Buckeyes must beat Iowa (19-12) in Thursday’s 11:30 a.m. second-round game and keep winning.

Through play Wednesday, Sueing was averaging 12.2 points and 5.4 rebounds. In 128 career games at the two schools, Sueing has piled up more than 1,600 points, including 33 vs. Texas Tech this season.

Cover photo of Connor Vanover by Steve Branscome, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo